


Okapi

by hutchabelle



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Children, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animals, F/M, Fluff, Parenthood, Zoo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 02:00:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14606715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hutchabelle/pseuds/hutchabelle
Summary: Katniss and Peeta take their children to the zoo and see a mutt.





	Okapi

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JennaGill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaGill/gifts).



> A while ago, I asked for drabble prompts with the intention of writing them for mores2sl. My dear friend jennagill sent in the prompt “okapi.” Thank you for your suggestion. I hope you enjoy the result.

 

“Katniss, over here!”

 

She glanced over her shoulder and swiveled until she spotted her husband. He waved vigorously with one hand and kept the other clenched tightly around the hand of their three-year-old daughter Brayleigh.

 

Unable to keep the smile from her face, she wove through the crowd outside the women’s restroom located in the Africa section of the Panem Zoo until she joined her small family. Peeta dropped a kiss to her cheek, and she leaned down to look into her daughter’s blue eyes.

 

“Hey, sweetheart,” she cooed. “Are you having fun with Mommy and Daddy?”

 

Brayleigh nodded, and her pigtails bobbed so that her dark curls bounced. For the millionth time, Katniss sent up a silent prayer of thanks that her daughter was happy and healthy after an unusually difficult first pregnancy that culminated in an emergency cesarean and premature birth. She and Peeta had been caught off guard by their daughter’s early arrival and spent the first day of her life googling baby names in between short naps and learning to breastfeed.

 

In the middle of the second night of her short life, Peeta typed in the word “hope” and read the list of girl’s names with that meaning. Brayleigh spoke to both of them, and their little girl was named for the guiding principle of their life—a ray of hope and the belief that life will get better.

 

And life did get better. As much as Katniss loved Peeta, she loved her daughter even more. Brayleigh represented the best of both of them, and the loving parents doted on her more than they knew they should. For her third birthday, Peeta bought their daughter a zoo membership, and on her half-birthday, Brayliegh’s parents took her to the zoo.

 

Katniss grinned at her husband over her daughter’s head and mouthed “zebra?” to him. He shook his head and pointed to his left where the curved trail wound toward the giraffes. Turning the stroller around, the Everdeen-Mellark family strolled toward the animals.

 

“How much longer until lunch?” Peeta asked with a winsome smile.

 

“Food, food, food,” she teased. “You’re always thinking about eating.”

 

“Yes, I am,” he teased and waggled his eyebrows at her. “I’m thinking about my midnight snack tonight right now.”

 

“Peeta Mellark! I am shocked. We are celebrating our daughter’s half-birthday. Today is about her; not your sex drive,” she whispered and smacked him playfully on the arm. She glanced around to make sure no one else heard them, but she wasn’t really that concerned. She was glad her husband still wanted her after a baby and a number of issues that had plagued their marriage.

 

He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “Maybe Brayleigh wants a little brother for her half-birthday. Did you ever think of that?”

 

“Later,” she insisted, and he winked at her.

 

“Counting on it, darling.”

 

“Mama, giwaffeths!” Brayleigh squealed as they moved around the corner. “Taaaaaaall giwaffeths.”

 

“That’s right, baby. They’re super tall, super big giraffes,” Katniss trilled and pushed her daughter closer to the fence surrounding the enclosure.

 

“Super big,” Peeta muttered under his breath, and Katniss elbowed him in the stomach.

 

“You’re not that well-endowed,” she hissed and leaned down to watch the animals from her daughter’s viewpoint. Peeta chuckled at his wife and admired the closeness between the two most important women in his life.

 

“Lions are next!” he announced after several minutes, and they moved along the path to the big cats.

 

“Kitty!” Brayleigh screeched, and Peeta winked at his wife.

 

“That’s right, baby girl. Big kitties. Big cats. Although, I’ve always liked tigers a little bit better, right, Katniss?”

 

She shook her head at her husband’s one track mind and emphasis on the first syllable of her name. Swallowing her smile, she remembered the last time he’d used a feline reference to describe her. It involved some sexy lingerie and a couple of hours between the sheets while their daughter enjoyed a playdate with her Aunt Prim and cousins.

 

“Maybe we should move on to the zebras,” Katniss suggested and smiled at her daughter. “Would you like that, Brayleigh? Would you like to see the striped horses?”

 

“Distraction mode. Nice,” Peeta teased and pushed the stroller around the bend to where the zebras frolicked.

 

“What in the world are those?” Katniss snorted as they approached what she’d thought were the zebras. “Those are…just plain weird looking.”

 

Peeta stood transfixed as he stared at the animals, and Brayleigh was so entranced, she didn’t say a word. In reverential silence, they moved toward the marker and stared at the name.

 

“Okapi?” Katniss asked, confusion evident in her questioning tone. “Never heard of them.”

 

“They look like— I don’t know what they look like,” he admitted. “They’re fuzzy.”

 

“It’s like a giraffe mixed with a zebra. And then a red panda. It’s so odd.” They stood together for several minutes until Brayleigh kicked and demanded to move to the next area of the zoo.

 

By late afternoon, all three of them were exhausted, and Katniss pushed the stroller toward the exit while Peeta juggled the balloon and large stuffed animals they’d purchased for their daughter. Several minutes later, a sleeping Brayleigh was strapped into her car seat, and Peeta huffed as he settled into the driver’s seat and started their SUV.

 

“Well, that was fun,” he drawled and reached for his wife’s hand.

 

“It was. How is our daughter three and a half already?”

 

“Time passed. I know that’s hard to believe.”

 

Katniss nodded and reclined against the head rest before glancing sideways to run her eyes over her husband.

 

“Maybe we should start over,” she suggested.

 

“How so? I don’t think I can go back in there. The animals will eat me if I do. Too tired to run away.”

 

“I thought you already offered to eat me tonight,” she teased. “Are you taking that back?”

 

“Hell no. That proposition always stands,” he insisted. “What exactly are we starting over?”

 

“Well… Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to have another.”

 

“Am I missing something?” he queried. “I’m tired, sweetie. Just tell me what you’re saying.”

 

She sighed at him, but she was too anxious to tease him for long.

 

“Maybe we should have another baby.”

 

His eyes bugged, and his mouth gaped. “Are you serious?”

 

“I am.”

 

“Buckle up, darling. We’re going home,” Peeta said as he shifted the car into drive and peeled out of the parking lot.

 

“I thought you were so very tired,” she goaded.

 

“I’m never too tired for that.”

 

“One request,” she insisted.

 

“Anything.”

 

“That okapi stuffed animal has to go. It’s creepy as hell.”

 

He chuckled as he signaled to merge onto the interstate. “Deal.”


End file.
